American McGee’s Grimm

It’s been a pretty good week for fighting games. First off, Soulcalibur IV arrived this week. It’s good solid fun so far, and we’ll have a review in the paper in a couple of days. Second, the Street Fighter film is coming along and it doesn’t hurt that it has Kristin Kreuk in the lead role. Lastly, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is moving up my must-play list even with an overpowered Superman.

2. We had a couple of reviews last week. Casual Games Maven Rosanna Chea had the task of reviewing Cake Mania 2. And unfortunately, it didn’t take the cake. Meanwhile, Danny has a review on American McGee’s Grimm and (sticking with the food cliches) it wasn’t his cup of tea.

Danny should have a review of the first episode up. With Grimm, GameTap is doing something interesting with the game. Fans will be able to play it for free during the first 24 hours. After that, they’ll have to pay for an individual episode. (GameTap subscribers get it for free.)

It’s the same formula that other networks have been doing. Maybe it’ll work with online video games.

It’s July 5 and we’re stuffed with barbecued, seared by fireworks and popping aspirin for that *ahem* morning headache. (Yes, we did a little too much partying.)

Things have been pretty quiet on our front. It looks like the studios are gearing up for E3 in Los Angeles. We’ll be there in a couple of weeks bring you folks the low down on the latest games and announcements.

But before that joyous future, we have to take a look at the past week. Here’s the best of what dug up:

1. It’s rare to find books about video games. It’s rare still to find an entertaining one about e-sports. That’s why reading Game Boys by Michael Kane is such a treat. It gives readers an inside look at Counter-Strike world and brings some of the more-talented names in the sport to life.

3. On the music-rhythm front, Harmonix was making some noise with two announcements. The first is that July’s album will be a collection by The Who. The other bigger news is that Rock Band 2 is coming. Oh joy!

4. On Tuesday, we managed to fit in a demo session with the folks at GameTap and played American McGee’s Grimm. It’s fairly polished title with a Katamari Damacy feel. McGee twists the Disney-fied version of fairy tales and makes them a little more gruesome and little more wicked via the main character Grimm.

As for the upcoming week, I’ll be in Las Vegas for the first half, but we’ll have a couple more reviews and E3 features as the big week approaches. Hope you had a happy Independence Day.